Quick takes

Picture of the day … not quite Unitas to Berry: Warning, Statter is about to get nostalgic again because of this picture by Herman M. Heyn on baltimoresun.com. It isn’t my fault that Baltimore City is fighting all of these fires at my childhood haunts (click here for the previous one). No, I didn’t play on this playground. But I spent a lot of time and had some great memories at this address, 900 East 33rd Street. So did many others who call Baltimore home. This is where Memorial Stadium sat f0r 51 years. My wife thought I was going to cry when we road by as they were demolishing it in 2001. I imagine there are some kids who feel that way about the playground that replaced the stadium. Read more about yesterday’s fire from The Baltimore Sun. Click here for good raw helicopter video. If you would like to read one of the best books ever written about Baltimore, check out William Gildea’s When the Colts Belonged to Baltimore: A Father and a Son, a Team and a Time.

Wounded FF ready to get back to work: Hakim Carroll was on the offensive line and then a defensive tackle with Duquesne University and he is currently a DC firefighter. So, Carroll isn’t likely to let a little thing like a graze from a bullet get to him. He says he wants to be back to work just as soon as they will let him. But FF Carroll also knows he missed much more serious injuries by a few inches. Click here to see the interview and read more.

A chief is a chief, of course, of course: Police chief. Fire chief. What’s the difference? The city manager in Longmont, CO apparently thinks the answer is “not much”. Click here to read about the plan to be more efficient and to do things, not just different, but better.

But wait, the City of Milton, GA was also determined to do things in a better, different way in 2006. Guess what? As an alert STATter 911 reader points out, their experiment to have a police chief in charge of the fire department failed. Read the article from a month ago.

PETA’s man of the year: That’s my guess after hearing about the work of FF Al Machado. He ended up with a lot of fur in his mouth, but saved a cat with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation after rescuing it from a burning apartment. I guess it was a better choice than the pit bulls that were rescued from the same building. Read more.

says numbers show why FD consolidation is needed: In an editorial urging consolidation in Pinellas County, FL, The St. Petersburg Times cites testimony to city commissioners by Tarpon Springs Chief Stephen Moreno. Chief Moreno needs 15 new positions to meet NFPA staffing levels. He’s only getting one. Tarpon Springs has the same number of firefighters it did in 1983, but the population has grown 60 percent and the fire department is handling five times the number of calls. Read the editorial. BTW, the fire department also doesn’t get much priority on the city website. You have to scroll way down to find it.

Also in Florida. Problems finding a home for firefighters: Since the downtown station flooded in January, Zephyrhills firefighters have been operating out of a museum at the airport. It is the World War II Barrack Museum. Finding a more permanent home is a dilemma because it will take something there is not a lot of these days, money. Click here for the story.

The waters of Lake Norman are a little rough right now: You must read the reaction two fire chiefs received from the commissioners of Lincoln County, NC when they tried to propose a partnership for a fire boat. It was called a “knee jerk reaction” to the death of a teen in a boat explosion. The chiefs were told their priorities are “spending, not saving” and they are obsessed with acquiring “stuff”. One commissioner suggested the county put a dollar in and get the boat’s title in return. A rough crowd that might have made even Rodney Dangerfield blush. Click here to read more.

A lot of discussion about the most recent audio from PGFD: Many comments from people who have listened to the 2nd-alarm on Monday on St. Barnabas Road. Click here if you would like to join in.

Career and volunteer working together in PGFD: Yes, I said PGFD. A nice story out of Bowie. There was a recent fire at the home of career FF/Medic Bill Terry’s mother. Terry’s co-workers were out there in no time to help and, of course, they did more. More than $3000 was raised to assist with expenses. Those helping out included IAFF Local 1619 and the Bowie VFD. Click here for the rest of the story.

Campus fire safety: I didn’t make it into the office yesterday say I missed the big press conference on Captiol Hill. But you can still read about the efforts of Ed Comeau at Campus Firewatch, IAFC, CFSI and others to improve campus fire safety. Click here.

Susan Nicol Kyle at Firehouse.com also attended the event. Her report is here.